Unreported whale killing threatens North-Pacific minke

Thursday, 29 June 2000 M. Bradley - ABC Science Online

Researchers fear much of the whale meat sold within Japan is not reported

Recent DNA analysis of whale meat available in Japan indicates Japan's killing of whales for scientific studies is concealing an undocumented trade in meat from accidentally caught, or poached whales - a practice threatening a subgroup of minke whales endemic to the Sea of Japan.

Sourced from Japanese markets and restaurants, the mitochondrial DNA of 574 samples was analysed to determine if the meat of different whale subgroups were being sold in the same ratio that government records indicate them being killed.

Whale meat can only be sold legally in Japan if it has been sourced from either the government's stockpile of whales killed for scientific research, or if it has been accidentally killed by fishing equipment or ship-strike (by-catch).

Government records indicate 80% of the whales killed each year for research purposes are antarctic minkes, with the remainder coming from a North-Pacific minke sub-group referred to as stock-O. Neither sub-group is considered endangered.

However, another sub-group of minke whale, endemic to the Sea of Japan, referred to in the report as Stock-J, is endangered with an estimated total population of only 2000.

Records state only 25 whales were killed as by-catch last year. Of these, only 15 were killed in the Sea of Japan. Therefore, stock-J whales should only account for at most 15 of the total 125 North Pacific whales killed.

The report however claims the proportion is double this, with up to one third of North Pacific whales being stock-J.

Co-author Stephen Palumbi attributes this difference to the unreported capture of stock-J whales and said, "The population is in serious trouble".

Joji Morishita, a Japanese delegate to the International Whaling Commission has refuted the findings of the study and was quoted as saying, "All the so-called suspicious whale meat is accounted for by stockpiles or by-catch".